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San Manuel Indian Bingo
San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino is a massive gambling complex in the foothills of Highland, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Take 210 east to the Highland Ave exit (note: this is after 210 stops being an interstate highway and becomes CA-210), go east to the next major intersection at Victoria Avenue, turn left, and drive until the street ends at the San Manuel parking garage. Or take a San Manuel tour bus. Note that there is no hotel connected to San Manuel: if you want to stay here you will need to make other arrangements. Call Guest Services at San Manuel for suggestions. Unlike most Indian casinos, San Manuel is not in a remote mountain area, but is nestled in the foothills of the Tehachapi mountains while still inside a Los Angeles suburban area. You drive right to the edge of town, but you don't have to drive on any winding 30-mile-per-hour roads along canyon edges to get here. There are no other poker rooms for at least 40 or 50 miles in any direction. But San Manuel has got you covered with a really great room. Games Wait Time: Not usually very long at all, especially if you're not super-picky about limits. This joint is jumping 24 hours a day and there are always hold 'em games going. Stud and Omaha generally only run during the main part of the day, though Omaha can run well into the night. Game Nature: Low-limit action rules this room, and the games are generally very loose and passive. The 2-4 and 3-6 games feature lots of retirees and inexperienced recreational gamblers. It's generally more of the same in the 4-8 games (which are very popular), though you may run into a few competent players at that limit. Overall, very beatable games that are looser than anything you'll find in Las Vegas. As with all such popular poker rooms, the higher the limits, the better the players, generally. By the time you hit 20/40, it's mostly good players. Rake: 3 + 1 jackpot on all limit games up to 8/16, 4 + 1 jackpot on all limit games from 20/40 up and on all no-limit games. Posting: New players do not need to post to enter a game. Shuffling: Shufflemaster machines on 40 of the 60 tables. They try to keep the non-machine tables for tournament use only, but it can get busy even during regular cash game times, and they will use hand-shuffled tables if they run out of machine ones. Kills: Killer acts last. Tournaments * Mon-Fri Jackpots and Promotions Jackpot for Hold Em is Aces full of Tens beaten by four-of-a-kind or better, both hole cards must play. 50% for bad-beat, 25% for the winning hand, and 25% for table share. The Jackpot is reset to $10000 after hitting, and is updated twice a day, so during the weekend time, it might add $3000 per day. A $16,000 jackpot was hit 11/05/2006 when 4 K's was beaten by a Royal Flush. High hand jackpot: $250 per hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays(12pm~12am) Double Jackpot: every other hour on Mondays and Wednesdays(12pm~12am) Atmosphere A simply gorgeous poker room that is one of the most attractive places to play poker in Southern California. The walls have eight understated TVs spaced far apart to not give the impression of being a TV wall. Hardwood wall panels, mellow lighting, and lots and lots of space in the room, without feeling empty or cavernous. The floorpeople wander the room armed with walkie-talkies so they can communicate with the brush at the front podium. The board is kept on an old-school markerboard at the front podium, in big letters. San Manuel was expanded from 30 tables to 58 in 2007; it took some time for the poker players in the region to begin to gravitate there, so during much of 2007 many of the tables were empty, but they slowly filled up until now, on busy days all 60 tables can be in use and a wait list is present. Floor and service staff are generally knowledgeable and courteous, but the room sometimes seems to be a bit understaffed due to the large amount of space in the room. The casino has no place for you to check bags or coats, but you may be able to convince the guest service manager to "check" something into lost & found. Tables and Chairs: Very pretty felt on the tables: bronze color felt with a two-tone commit line, bronze vinyl armrests, and rollup side tables for food and drink. Chairs are fixed leg, quality chairs with good padding. Parking: A huge parking structure holds thousands of cars. Valet parking available. Smoking: No smoking in the poker room. While the poker room is not actually fully enclosed, very little drift occurs from the main casino floor outside because there is only one open doorway for it to enter. Service and Comps Decent, affordable food from the occasional wandering server. Free soft drinks, but liquor will cost you. A deli-type self-serve restaurant/food-court is right next door. Links and Notes * Visited by Pekarinn2 in 2006. * Visited by MarkT in August 2009.